The idea that placing these at a 45 degree angle sounded completely odd, but since these Holostages don't really make much sense to me anyways, and yet evidently seem to have a noticeable effect for almost all who try them... I figured, well, ok why not try it?
To me, I can understand how placing something in an inductive field will force changes in the behavior of the electrical circuit. For example, placing a ferrous bar inside an inductor changes its inductance, and as you remove the bar you can see the inductance decrease. So even setting the iron bar on top of an inductor or transformer does have a quantifiable effect. So, going from one ferrous bar material to another obviously changes the sound of a guitar pickup. Any fan of guitar pickups can affirm that the material that the ferrous bar is made of matters a lot. So it makes sense to me that if we are placing the holostage on top of a transformer, that it can affect the flow of electrons, and likewise a hunk of iron will have a different effect from a conductive composite holostage.
But I do not understand why these sound good placed around the room. That to me is admittedly just bizarre.